Awards’ real value is in achievement

I JUST happened to come across a video snip that related how that very great Indian movie-maker, writer, director, producer and actor Shorab Modi, was once awarded the highest award of the land for his artistic work,

but due to some incorrect decisions, became insolvent financially and died a pauper. The height of irony was when this Dadabhoy Phalke (founder of Indian Cinema) medal was found in some insignificant pawnshop in the back alleys of Mumbai.

My own son recently faced a dilemma that actually cleared up the heartbreaking issue of awards, medal, certificates, etc, etc, that one receives in one’s lifetime.

We were forced by circumstances, to move from a big house to a small flat and my son asked me whether we had space for all the dozens of trophies, medal, etc, that he had won.

We finally came up with the solution to a problem that many children face as space becomes a scarce resource: children, and even adults for that matter, must be educated from a very young age that accolades in the form of medals trophies, certificates, etc, are no more than a pat on the back and unless they are made of a scarce metal like gold they should be disposed of in the garbage. Awards are actually virtual.

Material trophies are merely tangible symbols. Nothing can take away achievement. Not certificates made of paper, not trophies now made of plastic, not medals of silver, bronze or even gold. Discovering Shorab Modi’s very high award in a lost alley, all scratched, half corroded, selling for fifty rupees (R10), will never detract from that man’s achievement!